It appears Jokic will be the 3rd MVP to be swept in the first round

[HotRocks34]

And it looks like he'll be the 7th MVP to either lose in the first round or miss the playoffs, as discussed in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2185626
(Kareem missed the playoffs in 1976 despite winning the award)

Two other MVPs were swept in the first round.

1. Wes Unseld............1969.............lost 4-0 to the Knicks
2. Moses Malone.........1979.............lost 2-0 to the Hawks
3. (Jokic?)................2022?............lost 4-0 to the Warriors?



This tweet put up earlier is both true and false:

Read on Twitter

The tweet is technically true if you say that the first round of the playoffs has to mean "First Round", as in Round 1 of 4 rounds (First Round, Conf Semis, Conf Finals, Finals). The tweet is false if you say that first round means "first round of the playoffs played that year".

The NBA did not have a "First Round" of the playoffs until 1975. And that First Round did not expand to a Best-Of-7 format until 2003.

Thus, even in the most charitable sense of the Stat Muse tweet, we would be talking a 20-year history as compared with the fuller 75-year history of the league.

Probably the toughest-ever first-round out for an MVP (sorry Dallas fans) was Dirk Nowitzki in 2007. The 67-15, first-seed Mavs lost to a 42-40, 8th-seed Warriors squad in 6 games. That's a rough one. But Dirk's legacy survived (as did Kareem's from the 1976 playoff miss).

Unseld's 1969 misfire was also a difficult one. In the first round of games played in that season's playoffs, Unseld's top-seeded Bullets fell to the 3-seed Knicks in four straight games.

Is Unseld's sweep loss discussed as a "first-round" exit? Yes, it is.

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/top-5-moments-wes-unselds-career

The 1968-69 season didn't end how Unseld would've wanted, in a first-round sweep to the Knicks, but it's hard to look negatively on one of the best rookie years in NBA history.

Anyways, Unseld's reputation -- like Dirk's, Moses' and Kareem's -- survived the postseason mishap and (like the other three players already have or will have [Dirk] soon) he's got a place in the Hall Of Fame.

Similarly for Jokic. His career is not Hall Of Famer-caliber yet, of course (IMO), but he'll manage the likely playoff loss, sweep or no sweep.

Unlike Dirk (1 seed), Unseld (1) and Moses (4), Jokic is not on the higher-seeded team in his series matchup. And unlike Dirk and Unseld, Jokic's team (6th seed in the West; Tied 10th best record in the league) is far from the team with the best record in the league.

Denver is missing two key players. And they're playing a higher seed that is battle-tested and just getting healthy.

Denver's not supposed to win the series.

Jokic will be fine.

[kumquat]

How many regular season wins would this team get?


Aaron Gordon, Will Baron, Monte Morris, Jeff Green and a random average NBA centre.

[Domejandro]

How many regular season wins would this team get?


Aaron Gordon, Will Baron, Monte Morris, Jeff Green and a random average NBA centre.

7

[Wolfgang630]

How many regular season wins would this team get?


Aaron Gordon, Will Baron, Monte Morris, Jeff Green and a random average NBA centre.

We all know they’d get to the 3rd seed. Joker is holding them back.

[macNcheese3]

That’s a neat stat, however it’s not his fault. He’s done all he can do. The Warriors were an unlucky matchup for them.

It would have been a hell of a matchup if it was a fully healthy Nuggets team.

[Exp0sed]

so many threads rehashing the same nonsense

we get it, some folks think that being a 5-6th seed on a mediocre team that has no shot to advance in the playoffs - should exclude players from MVP race

Other folks think that if said MVP was really MVP calibre - there would be no such thing, as an MVP caliber player always has a shot in the playoffs

Those folks are wrong...ofc it doesn't happen often (MVP's being swept in the first round) - rarely do we see a roster so profoundly bad make it to the Playoffs

Denver's cast is historically bad and it was evident during the regular season as well and argued endlessly.. this isn't some new revelation

The past couple months of the season all we could hear was arguments and threads for how Dallas or even the 76ers (!) cast is comparable to Denver's and reasonable ppl have argued that that's laughable.

Now that u can see Dallas beating a mediocre Utah team without Doncic, and Philly's guys all playing very well, heck Danny green has been better than Gordon haha, I would think it's very plain to see the fallacy in that

We also heard how Kleber, DFS, Brunson etc. were all being elevated by Doncic and are actually not very good on their own (despite their play without Doncic in the regular season which indicated otherwise)
does any1 still think that?

They defend..they can make open and tough shots - they can compete
Brunson is a stud

Denver's cast just can't compete and it has nothing to do with Jokic
In fact had he been looking less for them and just doing everything on his own, they'd probably had a better shot to snag a game or two off the Warriors - they'd still be toast defensively vs. the Warriors (would probably fare a bit better in other matchups)

Harden, Maxey, Harris..just not comparable in any way
none of Denver's starters would start for any other playoff team, not one! and none of their bench players would see bench mins
this is getting ridicilus

GSW is also a particulary bad matchup for the Nuggets and as it stands with current injuries, probably the front runner to win it all
If u think other teams are gonna fare better vs. this GSW team, ur gonna be dissappointed
Curry, Green and Klay didn't play together this whole season, all three missed considerable games
Poole is also tearing it up, no1 is stopping them if healthy, let's be honest

they would have won 60+ easily had this roster played an entire season and they can def expose Jokic limitations on the perimeter moreso than other potential matchups.

However as far as 'being swept' goes, u guys realize now how bad this roster is? ppl were saying how 35 YO Jeff Green is actually a decent player, srsly i'm not making it up

There were some crappy rosters in the playoffs in the past, but if we take the best player out of the equation and compare the rest - Denver is probably bottom 5 all time
Golden state's 8th man is better than Gordon, Barton, Morris etc
Both greens, Facu, Cousins, Bones, Forbes etc. are barely playable in the Playoffs and were pretty bad in the regular season as well

Can u imagine these Nuggets with Gp2 and Kuminga (who isn't even playing)? they would start for these Nuggets...and off the bench they would be by far Dever's best players and i'm not even counting Curry lmfao

I hope for Jokic's sake that he gets to play for better teams in the near future, maybe even outside of Denver - then these threads will all make up for ideal future bump material

[Jaivl]

How many regular season wins would this team get?


Aaron Gordon, Will Baron, Monte Morris, Jeff Green and a random average NBA centre.

Fighting with Orlando.

[JN61]

I hope that half of RGM has same energy with Jokic they have had with Westbrook's MVP for past few years. At least Westbrook on the floor was massive positive for OKC in the playoffs..

[azapikoa]

Well deserved MVP though

[Statlanta]

How many regular season wins would this team get?


Aaron Gordon, Will Baron, Monte Morris, Jeff Green and a random average NBA centre.

Fighting with Orlando.

Nah. This team is better than Orlando. I should know it has Orlando players on it. Better than the bottom 5 probably around the Lakers.

[Exp0sed]

I hope that half of RGM has same energy with Jokic they have had with Westbrook's MVP for past few years. At least Westbrook on the floor was massive positive for OKC in the playoffs..

meh, that's beyond disingenuous imo

Nobody pays any attention to raw +- of a few games - i'd imagine that includes u as well...but when it fits a concocted (false) narrative then sure, wth not

By ur logic i'm guessing u think the Nuggets would have fared better in these 3 games w\o Jokic, right?
U can't have it both ways, if one statement is true - so is the other

Talent disparity between the teams is just huge, this was never gonna go past 5 games.
the Warriors were counting on the uselessness of Denver's role players and in this matchup which exposes the Nugget's worst weaknesses (perimeter defense and shot creation\shot making) - those guys have fared even worse than expected and worse considerably even from their meager regular season performance level

but sure, those guys with Cousins or Mason Plumlee instead of Jokic would fare better vs. the Warriors, right?
cuz +- and all that

it's all good, I wrote in the Nuggets\Gsw thread b4 the start of the series, that i'm shocked that ppl are actually voting for anything other then a sweep or maybe 4-1 at best. I specifically wrote that the Nuggets don't have a single capable perimeter defender and in this series would have to basically guard 3 of Curry\Klay\Poole\Wiggins at all times which means- they have no shot at containing the Warriors, especially in a perimeter oriented league and current officiating trends and rules

It was obvious to any1 who watched these teams play this season

but it's ok, now the haters can party for a year or two on Jokic's grand 'failure' and make silly comparisons between Westbrook and Jokic's MVp lol
When he'll have ballers by his side - it will be sweeter cuz of all the hate and blatant disrespect

[Bum Adebayo]

Jokic has finally played great in his last game, the 1st two games he clearly was part of the problem with mediocre TS% and lowest +/-, if he plays most of the games like last one there is not much you can blame on him IMO.

[Lockdown504090]

That’s a neat stat, however it’s not his fault. He’s done all he can do. The Warriors were an unlucky matchup for them.

It would have been a hell of a matchup if it was a fully healthy Nuggets team.

It would go five the warriors would just put mpj in th weak side corner and score 125 game until they take him off. Denver needs to rethink building around this trio. They need more defense around Nikola. He’s struggling to do anything other than high hedge ball screens and that’sa recipe for disaster if you don’t have great defenders

[bbalnation]

Nikola is a **** basketball wizard, and making him a focus of this conversation sucks (imo), especially given his level of his play lately.

What also sucks:
- Media members being the only people voting for awards that have to do with financial incentives (within NBA contracts, and for promotional contracts)
- Not having criteria to vote with year by year
- What criteria is there to get a vote as a media member (who gets to vote, how is it selected, and why that media personnel over others?)

[Balls Deep]

The regular season MVP has always been a stupid idea. They should give one MVP at the end of the playoffs. If you want to give another for Finals MVP too that’s fine I guess. But so many people have gotten exposed when defenses get tight and players actually start caring.

[10DayContract]

What I find interesting is that all the MVPs on your list were all big men. That should tell us something.

[Johnny Firpo]

But so many people have gotten exposed when defenses get tight and players actually start caring.

Surely you are not referring to Joker here.

[Qhawe]

lol Moses lost 2 games and it's considered a sweep. hate to see it.

[Freighttrain]

He played great this game, but it's like Charles & Kenny mentioned, his imprint wasn't felt and he had a key turnover in the final minute of the game. His first two games were everything but impressive. I hope he can give the Nuggets a gentlemen sweep at least and have one consistent 48-minute MVP performance that doesn't make people doubt and question his impact.

[Wagonband]

What I find interesting is that all the MVPs on your list were all big men. That should tell us something.

Like what?